Who Are WE? We're PR3!

Throughout high school, I’ve always had an interest in dancing.  In fact, I was in Urban Dance Club for three years (on and off) and did a lot of break dancing.  On the very first day of school here at Baruch, I went to the basement to play handball with Derek, but as we passed by B3, I heard hip-hop music and turned my head to see a group practicing a routine.  They saw me standing there dumbfounded and asked me if I was interested in joining.  I suppose the rest is history as I became the newest member of Reign Supreme Crew.   Joining the dance crew definitely enhanced my experience here at Baruch, considering it isn’t much of a college experience here since everyone’s a commuter.  It was an easy way to meet new people without going out of my way to socialize.  It gave me common grounds with others with the same interest as much and allowed me to express my interest in hip-hop choreography.  The group is divided into seniors and juniors, seniors being the advance dancers and having the most experience and juniors being novices and recently joined members.  I plan on advancing into the senior group and create new choreography for the group and hold workshops together with other senior members to attract more members.  I see a bright future for the group if we can claim club status and become more united as a crew.   For me, the crew helped me break out of my stage-fright and definitely boosted my confidence, not only in dance but in everything I do.

I kinda, sorta, don’t like joining clubs. I might actually have an irrational fear of student organizations in general,but you know what? SOME of them actually aren’t that bad.

IN particular, I think I made a sweet choice when I chose to join USG with Isabelle, Piane, and Eva. I mean, I had my doubts, because prior experiences with high school government meetings had me drop dead bored out of my mind, but I came to realize that the meetings were actually quite interesting, and it was a nice touch seeing those ideas proposed in the Public Service committee being acted upon. Truthfully, I realized that what I look for in a club, or in any organization for the matter, was action, and that’s exactly what USG brought in. I realized how stupid it was for me to “dislike” a club based on it’s face value. after all, not all clubs are the same, and that is exactly why it is so easy to find one that tailors to your needs and satisfactions. IN that respect, I remain, especially grateful, to those four who put up with my complaining about how stupid it was going to be, because if they hadn’t, I probably would’ve dropped out the moment I had the chance. Now though, I have something interesting to pursue, and I intend to pursue it immediately after I get back from my break.

 Archery! Where we learn how to hunt, we get fresh animals every meeting >:)

Just kidding! 😉 We shoot at Styrofoam targets with paper targets on them to calculate points. I joined this club in the middle of August, yup that’s right, you heard me, August! I heard about this club at freshman orientation, and I was psyched! I have always wanted to do archery since I was 8 and began reading medieval fantasy books. So one Saturday, I didn’t have work and I went to check it out. When I got there I met some of the regular members and there was 2 other new members too! It was a huge coincidence because they told me that we were the first new members for like 3 months. The first day was AWESOME~~ I had a blast shooting. Afterwards I went out with them for dinner and even drank a bit, shhh 😉 After school started I rearranged my work schedule and was able to go every weekend! I made some great friends there, and most of them are juniors. This means that I can get a lot of advice and tips on school too!

Alright I hope I’ve kept you interested for a while, if you want to try Archery, come on Saturdays 6pm-9pm and Sundays 4pm-7pm, everyone is really nice and outgoing, we are very lively and fun to hangout with 😀

Free time comes about twice a week at Baruch, well for me at least. Monday’s and Wednesday’s I have a three hour break because I dropped Sociology from my schedule due to already having taken it in high school. The first few weeks of school all I did was go to the library and sleep not he couches for a few hours. After waking up I felt unproductive and surprisingly, even more tired; which led to me sleeping in my history class. I decided that I would go to the gym for the first hour and then go out to eat. So on Monday’s and Wednesday’s I bring my gym bag with a change of clothes and I work out for about an hour. Monday’s I do chest and Wednesday’s I do legs. This worked out perfect for me.

After the gym I drink my shake and then I journey to the outside world, in close parameters of Baruch of course, and search for places to eat. I usually get egg whites with ham on a whole wheat roll, sushi, spanish food, or if it is raining out I get lunch in the cafeteria. Lunch in the cafeteria is pretty expensive and not worth the money, but I have to eat so sometimes I just order the Japanese food. Once classes are over though I must venture back into the wild, Staten Island that is, to return home. Three out of the four days I go to school I have work. Ugh, work…

When I first got to Baruch, I was reluctant to try anything. My sister tried talking me into joining her sorority. My response was, “NO FREAKIN’ WAY.” Nothing interested me, whatsoever. My best friend Bianca dragged me to an info session for this club called AIESEC. The room was packed and the club itself sounded pretty cool. I decided I should just apply for the hell of it. The interview process wasn’t bad at all. After a few billion questions about my strengths and weaknesses, followed by a phone call, and another billion questions, and another phone call, I was in. I’ve only been in AIESEC for nearly 2 months, but I can definitely say that I really like it. I’ve gotten to know some really cool people – including you, Alina- haha. Getting involved has definitely made my college experience more fun. I spend less time to myself, and more time socializing. So far AIESEC has taught me about networking, making connections, and developing as a leader with my own strengths. I love it. We have some pretty innovative people in AIESEC, that make a trojan suit of armor out of stickers. That’s real creativity. I love getting to know people that are driven, ambitious, and so nice to their newbies.
Its great to know that AIESEC is a global organization. I can’t wait until I get to travel abroad, myself, to wherever the heck I want. As far as furthering my involvement goes, I definitely want to take on more leadership positions. I’m not too sure what I want to do yet. There are so many options – organizing or facilitating a conference, being a mentor – I can’t decide. Either way, I’m going to be sticking in AIESEC for a while, and I cant wait to see what I’ll accomplish in it.

As of September, I’ve been a Baruch Bearcat….on the swim team of course. Getting involved in the swim team isn’t really a big surprise for me because I was on my high school team also. Before I even chose which school I was going to, I knew I wold try out for the swim team. It’s really arduous, the workouts; they can go on for hours. But they are definitely worth it, I’m so much stronger than I was in high school. My freestyle has gotten better, and surprisingly I’ve found another stroke I’m good at…breaststroke. I don’t think I can have any leadership positions, seeing as how its by first year in the college and on the team, but I plan on staying with it till graduation year. For some reason, swimming isn’t a summer sport, so unfortunately I’ll be freezing my nads off till January but w/e its all in good fun. =] I love to swim, it’s part of what makes me, me.

I found the panel discussion to be quite boring so honestly, I can not really say I did not doze off during it, but I did hear something about reality while Charles Li was speaking, which had me wondering about it myself.  Reality has a lot to do with life.  Generally our perception of reality changes as we grow during our lives.  In my eyes, as youths we tend to often live in a fantasy world, whether it be because we are ignorant, oblivious or anything else.  As we grow older, we mature and start thinking about our responsibilities and realize we have to take control of our futures.  So, in our adult years reality kicks in and we see the world in a new light where more is expected of us.  Later in life if you become old and senile then life once again is a fantasy.  I think that is a problem with many people today, they do not live in reality until it kicks their ass and by then, sometimes it is too late.

I have to say, college is so much tougher than the rumors made it out to be back in high school.  I thought having a schedule that ends at 12:30 three out of four days a week would be a piece of cake, but college still finds a way to steal away all my sleep.  This is one of the main reasons I haven’t gotten involved in any clubs: there is simply too much work that needs to be done.  I also want to say, all the hype people make up about how you must get involved if you want to make any friends is just bull.  Yes it might help you make a few more friends than you would already make in your block, but it’s not a necessity and I’m getting tired of people telling me that I must join a club or I’ll be friendless.

I’m not sure what clubs are out there, but the only one that I know of that I have some interest in is the bowling and pool club? Bowling and ping pong? I forget what it’s called but it has bowling, and that is one of my passions.  I gave it up 8 months ago but I dearly miss it, and I’m itching to get back.  I heard it’s not that active so if I can gather up a few friends, I might want to start a club exclusively for bowling since it’s not that popular but I believe it’s a sport that’s heavily underrated.

Somehow I’ve managed to make some awesome friends spending my time down at the handball courts.  Socializing while doing something that we all enjoy is a great way to break the ice and best of all, I just have to go downstairs during my free time between classes to find friends.  It wasn’t easy at first, but once you meet one friend, it just snowballs and everyone just seems more comfortable with each other.  I’m glad I met these cool new people in PR13 because it really showed me how nice people are at Baruch.  It’s nothing like high school where it’s a free for all and everyone’s only looking out for themselves.

Coming to College everyone wants to make a lot of new friends. On of the best ways is of course joining clubs. But for some people like me who don’t really have that much time to join clubs. Thats why i have not  gotten involved yet, but I want to start joining clubs maybe starting my sophomore year. I didn’t want to join this year because I don’t have time to go to meetings every week and most of the clubs doesn’t really interest me. The club that I am willing to join is accounting club since I am going to major in that field it should benefit me. Also I would like to join some Honor Clubs because it just looks good on my resume. I would not be interested in starting my own club because it is just too overwhelming. Since I am lazy and unorganized, even if I started one it would be a disaster.

Derek stole my topic, so this post might have some overlapping details. I’m pretty sure all of us are finding some of our classes at Baruch College pretty stressful. Calculus brings misery to those who don’t understand what’s going on in class, I am one of them. I’m pretty sure everyone tries to reduce stress in their own unique way! Whether it’s smoking, drinking, partying, listening to music, hanging with friends, or even dancing, we all manage to get rid of stress one way or another.

Since you know this post is going to be about handball, it’s my way to blow off steam when Calculus decides to perplex me with its sophisticated equations. Handball is known to reduce stress, I mean your hitting a ball with your hands, kind of like beating up someone and letting all your troubles go, huh? I’m not good at handball, Derek’s beast! He’s the one being modest. That is probably the one most visited place I been to in Baruch besides class and the bathroom. Handball is universal, so you guys and girls should come down to the racquetball courts and play with Andy, Derek, and me! It relieves stress like nothing else! Besides it’s exercise too, sitting down listening to the professors make us sluggish, handball will make you guys all energetic again!